A Tamil Nadu based Christian pastor created a tense drama in a court on Monday, as he shouted slogans and claimed that the resent historic judgment of the Supreme Court to decriminalise homosexuality would lead to natural calamities.
Father Felix Jebasingh of Puliyakulam Church, who was present in the district court seemed unhappy over the recent apex court judgement. Terming the judgement as a “great sin”, the pastor shouted slogans urging the people not to support gay marriages. According to Father Felix, Jesus Christ will be arriving down to the earth to punish the ‘evil people’ who decriminalized consensual gay sex.
“Please do not support the court judgment on Section 377 (of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)). The Jesus Christ is arriving. His arrival is imminent. These type of marriages will lead to total destruction of the society,” the pastor shouted as the police escorted him out. He further said, “God has destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah using fire and sulphur because they allowed homosexuality… don’t support homosexuality”. The pastor was incidentally referring to the Sodom and Gomorrah, notoriously sinful cities in the biblical book of Genesis, destroyed by sulphur and fire.
Pastor Felix Jebasingh, 29-year-old belongs to of Periyar Nagar near Puliyakulam and is attached to Puliyakulam Church of Pentecostal mission. Reportedly, the pastor was arrested by the local police and taken to Race Course police station. A case has been registered against him under Section 75 of the Tamil Nadu City Police Act for creating a public nuisance.
The Supreme Court of India in its historic verdict decriminalised homosexuality under section 377, making gay sex legal. A five-member constitutional bench had delivered the judgement, announcing that consensual sexual relationships between adults of the same gender in private do not fall foul of section 377 of IPC.
The judgement of the Supreme Court was not well received by the certain sections of the society, particularly by the certain section of minorities. Similar to the above incident, a news source called ‘The Milli Gazette’, representing Indian Muslims had called for the scrapping of the judgement and called it ‘a step towards self-destruction’.
During the hearing of the case, All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPBL) and Christian intervenors had come out to oppose scrapping section 377. The AIMPLB had asserted that homosexuality is a ‘sin in all religions’.
